Every so often, Slimming World review their plan - an essential function to ensure long term success. In Early September, some new plan changes were announced as a result of one of these reviews. Has the day that many of us dreaded finally come?

Slimming Worlds plan changes affect formerly syn free foods such as flavoured yogurts, instant mash and tinned pasta. Lots of people are reacting to the news, particularly with the news the Slimming world favourites - Muller Lights - will be synned among other fat free yoghurt varieties.

The app is being updated to reflect the changes, and the 2019 Slimming world pack will be released sh with full details.

Quote from slimming world on the 2018 plan changes

“Our Nutrition and Food teams here at Slimming World regularly review the latest scientific and nutrition research, food trends and products to make sure Food Optimising stays bang up-to-date and in line with current guidance, so that you can achieve the very best weight loss results in the very healthiest way.

Following a full review over the last 12 months and based on the very latest nutrition data as well as feedback from members and Consultants about the potential impact of some food products on members’ weight losses, we’ve made some changes to the following:

Vegan products – new Free and Healthy Extra options added

Fat-free yogurt – more plain varieties have become Free, and all flavoured varieties now have a small Syn value

Instant mashed potato – all varieties now have a Syn value

Tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce – all varieties now have a Syn value

It’s good news for our vegan members – new Free and Healthy Extra options added

Using the very latest information on average protein, carbohydrate, fat, sugar and calorie content of thousands of every day foods* together with the rapidly growing number of brands, products and flavours of yogurt available in every supermarket, our Food and Nutrition teams have created a much more robust way of categorising yogurt. That means we can now give product-specific Free Food allowances to the various types of yogurt (such as Greek, skyr, dairy-free, quark yogurts, protein yogurts and more) – based on their specific energy densities, their nutrient content and how filling they are.

This has led to new varieties being added to our basic Free Food yogurt list which now looks like this:

Our analysis has also led to a small change for flavoured yogurts, and all fat-free flavoured yogurts now have a Syn value.

Low-Syn yogurts

No-added-sugar yogurts will be around ½ Syn per 100g and yogurts with added sugar will be around 1 Syn per 100g, which means:

a 125g pot of flavoured Danone Activia 0% fat will be ½ Syn

a 175g pot of Mullerlight will be 1 Syn

The good news for flavoured yogurt lovers is that they’re still very low in Syns! And if you’re currently losing weight comfortably while enjoying several yogurts a day – by keeping count of the low Syns, you’ll be sure to continue to lose weight beautifully.

Instant mashed potato – changed to 3½ Syns per 100g made up

As well as having a lower concentration of some B vitamins, instant mash has less fibre and less filling power than mash made with fresh potatoes. It’s also often used to ‘tweak’ Food Optimising – being used as a coating, a thickener, a flour substitute etc. So to protect members’ weight losses, it will now have a Syn value of 3½ Syns per 100g made up.

Tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce – changed to ½ Syn per 100g

Unlike dried pasta cooked at home, canned pasta is softer and takes little or no chewing (important to help us feel full). To help protect members’ weight losses and help you get into more filling, healthy Free Food and Speed food habits, tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce are no longer a Free Food. The average Syn value is now ½ Syn per 100g.

❤️

Where you’ll see the changes…

• Tomorrow: the food search tools on the website and app will show the updated Syn values for these products.

• Next week: features and menus online.

❤️• Late December: details have been updated in 2019’s Food Optimising book which every new and existing member will receive for free from 24th December onwards.

Even though some of these products are no longer Free Food, the Syn values are still very low, so you can choose whether to stick with old favourites or switch to Free Food options.”

— End Quote —

What do we think? In my opinion, one can't argue with Slimming World's science and data, so I trust the plan changes are for the better. I also think the changes are logical due to the sugar content of the foods mentioned. Lastly, it may encourage me to eat cleaner foods rather than choosing the convenient option in order to save a few syns.

Please share this info with your local slimming world circles to raise awareness and let us know your thought in the comments!